1. Technical Field
The field of the invention relates to telecommunications and, more particularly, to messaging between users of a telecommunications system.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Phone calls, SMSs and e-mails are widely used for communicating. Most people use all of them regularly. These technologies are complementary but not coordinated.
SMSs are particularly suitable for small-screen portable devices. For e-mail, the user interface and memory capacity of mobile phones and PDAs have somewhat limited usability as compared to a desktop or laptop PC due to their restricted size especially as concerns the larger screen and keyboard of a desktop or laptop computer. For simple convenience, some access of e-mail will typically be convenient and will be performed using the limited user interface of smart mobile phones. However, when required to perform longer tasks with e-mail many users tend to use the superior user interface and memory of desktop or laptop PCs as the primary access method for mobile e-mail. It has been projected that 80% of all access at mobile hotspots 2008 will still be through laptops, not mobile handsets. It is thus desirable to provide new features in mobile phones to improve the functionality of the phone when used in conjunction with a laptop or PDA.
Some problems are that:    a) Current implementations of e-mail software on mobile phones allow for the download of e-mail headers or complete e-mails which can then be read, replied, etc. using the phone interface.    b) If the e-mails are downloaded to the phone for reading, responding, etc. they are either removed from the server or left on the server (user's choice).    c) If e-mails are removed from the server, the user cannot subsequently download them to a laptop or other device, then use the device with the better user interface to read, respond to, delete, etc. the e-mails.    d) If e-mails are left on the server, the laptop or other device must re-download the e-mails doubling the use of bandwidth, even though the e-mails may be available locally on the mobile phone.
Even though one can use phone calls, SMSs and e-mails, people cannot handle these communication forms in a common way. As described above, phone calls and SMSs can be handled and archived on the phone, while e-mails can at the same time be handled and archived on a desktop or laptop PC with some user coordination required. Both the phone and the PC use their own set of contacts and the user needs to take care of synchronization. It is difficult (or even impossible) with prior art technology to reply to a phone call or SMS with Internet e-mail or vice versa. It would be useful to have a single communication center that would handle all the communication that the person is having, no matter what mechanism has been used for it. Furthermore, when the communication data is distributed (part of the data is stored in the phone and part in the computer) it is hard to search for all communication that has been conducted with a certain person.
Users are not able to follow work-related electronic conversations if they are far from their own desk. Messages from different sources are not handled in a consistent manner and messaging clients have to be changed to communicate with different types of messages. It is not easy or sometimes even possible to answer a message using a different medium, e.g., to send notes written during a phone call and the recorded call as well to the caller in an email. When using a cell phone for certain types of cell phone related messages, the user would prefer to use a large screen and keyboard of any desktop computer nearby (pool computers, home computer, laptop, etc.) instead of the small size peripherals of the mobile terminal. Nonetheless the user would like to have access to the user's correspondence even if there is no desktop computer available. It is true though that the user would prefer to avoid use of existing 1-to-1 synchronization solutions because of the number of the visited locations and used computers.
In the industry, there are plans to develop a communication history type of functionality. According to such plans, the idea is to provide an integrated contact management application but with a PC-centric approach. These plans include the eventual objective of enabling a PC user to connect Contacts to numerous portable devices (like cell phones) through a synchronization management infrastructure, to connect electronically with nearby contacts for peer-to-peer collaboration and file sharing, and to perform other duties which are either impossible today or require an extensive collection of third party software, much of which doesn't currently work together. A “Communication History” view is planned which will chronologically detail all of the phone, email, instant messaging (IM), peer-to-peer, or other conversations a person has had with contacts. Sorting by date, rating, message type, and other criteria is also contemplated. A mobility center that would act as an activity center for future mobile computers that will provide a handy front-end to touch all things needed by a mobile user. It appears that software tools are under development that are to be tied to PC operating systems.